Calligraphy for Beginners

Regretfully this class has been cancelled  because of unforeseen circumstances.

Course: Warkworth Weekend Course on Foundational Hand

Date: 23rd - 24th August, 2014 

 Time: Saturday 9.30-3.30pm 

              & Sunday 9.30-12.30pm

 Cost: $50 (KAC Members $45)

Venue: KAC Rooms, Warkworth Showgrounds, 

State Highway 1

Cost: $50 (KAC Members $45)

Bookings: $25 deposit with bookings

Contact: Hilary Lewis - phone 09 425 7042 email  hilary@arcon.co.nz

Report from July's monthly meeting

If you needed to know what the phrase 'bring your usual calligraphy gear' means  - last night was the night to come to our meeting.

Despite the awful weather outside we were spell bound by Margaret who had set up a wonderful display of tools and materials available to modern day calligraphers, combine that with her years of experience meant that our questions were answered with anecdotal comment, hints and tips. An excellent back to basics discussion and I am sure that everyone of us learnt something.  

A suitcase to help keep the gold, foils, metals etc secure and uncontaminated. The pros and cons of quills, even how to make a reservoir to slide up a shaft. Beautiful boxes of nib stock, so there is no excuse not to play. 

One of the most important things is to experiment and play with tools, pigments and paper. Margaret impressed upon us to do this and to keep our efforts as a record for comparisons. Some materials are better than others for a particular effect. Margaret shared several of her books, some containing a whole variety of different papers, some with stubby leaves to which she had then added larger trials and tests as they were completed. After the talk we were able to examine and discuss the various equipment and have a cup of tea. Margaret is starting a calligraphy course very soon, click here for details for more information.

       'To Make Good Letters'

                                                                     Margaret Woollett -Tutor

Common writing tools:- ccrk, automatic, stick, bamboo, coit, mapping, parallel, glass, aluminium, ruling, witch, butterfly, suede and felt.

A night of delving into our 'kit', learning about the 'what' and 'how' of some of these tools, inks, paints and papers we carry around in our workboxes.

We will look at what are some of our calligraphy tools, how we use them, getting the best out of these tools, and their potential to be used in the making of 'Good Letters'.

A look at some of the myriad of other tools available to us as calligraphers, and techniques learned over many years of experience on the how and why's that assist a freelance calligrapher in 'Making Good Letters'.

Bring your 'kit', pencil and paper, your questions, and come along, there is much we can all learn from the experiences of others… we will have a great evening as we learn and share together.

Tuesday 1st of July Meeting- Gifford Gallery, Mt Eden

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

A last reminder for this year's meeting to come along and contribute to your group, to have a say in how things are run, and how you think we could improve, or get your questions answered. It will be a busy evening, as your committee have quite a few things planed to get through. Please bring a plate to share after the business side of things and we will socialise over an excellent supper.

 'Making Good Letters and Arranging them Well'

Margaret Woollett -Tutor

I am offering a calligraphy class with a difference. Looking at some of the foundations of where our western calligraphy has come from. 

Working our way through, Edward Johnston's books, "Writing & Illuminating & Lettering" and "Lessons in Formal Writing"….using these 'classics' and learning from the 'Master' himself. There is a huge amount of information and knowledge contained within these volumes.

A good foundation of the why/how/what, is fundamental to producing good lettering. Looking afresh at some of the very basics of calligraphy by doing, and experiencing the problems, then, finding solutions, and putting it all in to practice, will be what this class is about.

Edward Johnston's wealth of knowledge, found in these volumes will change the way we see letters and enhance the letters we make. Johnston insisted, "learning must be from making actual things"…. I intend in this class, to make an 'actual thing'… what ever you want that 'thing' to be… To do this collectively, offers a wider view point, a learning together, a sharing of experiences, and processes, making our own learning faster and greater.

It will be a regular fortnightly class - this it is important as it will assist us in developing and keeping our hand trained. Dates yet to be confirmed - hope to begin end of June, I am able in my studio to accommodate up to 8 people 'cosily' or we could look at another more central venue - I am in  Narrow Neck, Devonport- another venue would come at more cost, which is not something I want to incur!

Many classes are the study of a certain style of 'hand' with exemplars provided…we will not be working from 'exemplars' per se …  we will look as 'EJ' does, on how to analyze a hand, make formal hands, versals, design elements, colour, tools, gold etc.

Looking to begin this class, Thursday 26th June.

Open to all, from beginners, to those like me, with many years of writing experience, but a desire to learn more. 

Look forward to your queries.

To contact Margaret Woollett by email click the following Margaret's email or
Ph: 09 4451205, MOB: 021 1283424

UPDATE:

Journaling.

Please continue to use your journals as often as you can. We would like to publish anything you think might be of interest to others who are doing the same thing. We would like to know how you made the time to do it, and the sorts of things you used it for. Sometimes solutions for you can help someone else who has ground to a halt. Please contact Dale if you would like to share.

Collaborative book.

This is on hold temporarily as members are over committed with courses and completion of other calligraphy artwork. If you want to continue please contact Dale as there may be enough people to continue a smaller edition. The contact details are in the sidebar of this blog.
Reminder. Artwork with 'Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter' for the magazine is needed now, please make sure you send it to Dale or bring along to the A.G.M. if you cannot.

Max Gimblett's work has arrived for the sumi workshops at Waikato University. For more information click here. Registration is open now.

Consider the packaging used to transport artworks to an exhibition, it is a skill you may be required to know and then use for the safe transport of your own work for sale or entry to an exhibition.

NOTICE OF THE NEW ZEALAND 

CALLIGRAPHERS 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

10th June, 6pm - 9pm at the Gifford Gallery, 27a Poronui Street, Mt Eden.

Artwork and Calligraphy Jan Leonard

Come along and see us on Tuesday evening and catch up with what we have been up to over the past year. We will be running a lucky door prize, competitions, short workshop reports, a continuous raffle, a photo display and if everyone brings a plate there will be a superb supper. We would love to see you one and all.

Next months meeting (Tuesday 6th May) has a few exciting things to look forward to. Firstly we will have a journal catch up, everyone please bring your journals along from last month to a show and tell. Even if there is nothing in them - perhaps there will be several of you struggling to work on content. We would love to see those who have completed the quotation challenge too.

We would ask everyone who has made a collaborative book to bring them along as we plan on doing another. Some of our group have no idea how a collaborative project works. There will be a group discussion, some decisions made, and everyone who wishes to join in will go home knowing what to do next.

Our first meeting at the Gifford Gallery was attended by twelve of us. After a catch up greeting and lots of noise, Hillary showed us her first workbook from 1999 and then later ones showing changes. We handed round published books on journal making, content and examples of individual pages from all over the world.

Dale showed us her workbook from the same era and the journals that followed. It was interesting to see different ways a journal could be used. Everyone was given a ring bound journal and were instructed to decorate a page in it. Draw roughly a grid, put our initial in the centre and around in the remaining squares the initials of the others at the tables. We are to finish decorating the page at home. It was supposed to help us break the white page syndrome.

We asked for volunteers for writing names on bookmarks for whole classrooms of children, Susan is organising this. Then a welcome cup of tea and a quick discussion about next months class and what to do in the meantime. Dale has a project for us - to take the words summer, winter, spring and autumn and play around with capitals. White paper please, suitable for publishing, look for ‘Quotation’ in the magazine. Dale made some roughs to give you a starting point.

Added below, one week later are two journal pages that have been further worked on.